Rsync Command to Sync files in Unix/Linux.

Rsync (Remote Sync) command is used for copying and synchronizing files and directories remotely as well as locally in Linux/Unix systems. With the help of rsync command you can copy and synchronize data remotely and locally across directories, across disks and networks, perform data backups and mirroring between two Linux/Unix machines.

• It supports copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions.
• It’s faster than scp (Secure Copy) because rsync uses remote-update protocol which allows us to transfer just the differences between two sets of files. 
• First time, it copies the whole content of a file or a directory from source to destination. From next time. it copies only the changed blocks and bytes to the destination.
• It consumes less bandwidth as it uses compression and decompression method while sending and receiving data both ends.
• It copy files from locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync daemon.
• Its widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use.
• It can use exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar.
• It does not require root privileges.
• It supports anonymous or authenticated rsync servers which is ideal for mirroring.

Syntax

Local use:
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]

Access via remote shell (PULL):
rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]

Access via remote shell (PUSH):
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST

Access via rsync daemon (PULL):
rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]

Access via rsync daemon (PUSH):
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST

Common Examples

Copy/Sync Files and Directory Locally

rsync -zvh aaa.tar /tmp/aaa/ destination_folder

destination_folder is current folder by default.

Copy a Directory from Local Server to a Remote Server

rsync -avz anand_files/ anand@192.168.0.1:/home/anand_files/
rsync -avzh anand@192.168.0.1:/home/anand_file /tmp/anand_files

Copy a File from a Remote Server to a Local Server with SSH

rsync -avzhe ssh anand@192.168.0.1:/anand/A.log /tmp/anand/
rsync -avzhe ssh /tmp/a.log anand@192.168.0.1:/backup/anand/

Show Progress While Transferring Data with rsync

rsync -avzhe ssh --progress /home/soft anand@192.168.0.1:/anand/soft

Use of –include and –exclude Options

It excludes/includes particular char/string file names while copying.

rsync -avze ssh --include 'RAJ*' --exclude '*' anand@192.168.0.1:/anand/unix/ /root/anand/unix/

Set the Max/Min Size of Files to be Transferred

rsync -avzhe ssh --min-size='5k' --max-size='2048k' /anand/unix/ anand@192.168.0.1:/anand/unix

Automatically Delete source Files after successful Transfer

rsync --remove-source-files -zvh aaa.tar /tmp/anand/

Set Bandwidth Limit (KBPS) and Transfer File

rsync --bwlimit=1024 -avzhe ssh  /anand/unix/  anand@192.168.0.100:/anand/unix/temp/